Colorado Rockies morning after: Homers doom Rox in series finale

The Philadelphia Phillies took a page out of the Colorado Rockies playbook Wednesday afternoon.

With the Rockies having twice as many homers as their opponents this season, the Phillies used the long ball to their advantage instead slamming a season-high four homers on the way to a 9-6 victory before a crowd of 21,490 on a sunny spring day at Coors Field.

Colorado, which was seeking a sweep of the team’s three-game series Wednesday after capturing the first two contests, entered the game with 12 homers in 2022 (compared to six for opponents) with half of those coming off the bat of first baseman C.J. Cron.

But the Rox (8-4) did not go yard against five Philadelphia pitchers in the series finale while Phillies hitters languished on Colorado pitching.

Five Colorado Rockies pitchers combined to allow four roundtrippers and a season-high nine runs.

Their final home run of the day, a three-run shot off the bat of Johan Camargo, capped a five-run seventh inning for Philadelphia Phillies that snapped a 4-4 tie against the Colorado Rockies.

The homer by Camargo, who went 4-for-4 on the day while batting eighth in the order, ultimately proved to be the difference in the game.

Three of the Phillies’ home runs came off Rockies starter Germán Márquez, who went six innings, and they accounted for all four runs surrendered by the righthander.

Nick Castellanos led off the fourth for the Phillies with a solo shot to straightaway center field. Three batters later, Alec Bohn stroked a two-run, opposite field homer to right field.

Kyle Schwarber, who scored three times, added the final homer off Márquez with a leadoff, 468-foot blast in the sixth inning off an 0-2 delivery.

“Today was a lot better with my fastball command and I think everything was good,” said Márquez, who didn’t factor into the decision. “I just missed … two pitches.”

The Phillies’ seventh-inning uprising came against relievers Jhoulys Chacin (2-1) and Lucas Gilbreath, who was making his first appearance of the season after returning from the COVID-19 injured list.

Robert Stephenson, also making his debut relief outing for 2022 after coming back from the COVID-19 IL, tossed a scoreless inning as did Carlos Estévez.

Offensively, the Rockies did get 12 hits with five players—Cron, Randal Grichuk, Ryan McMahon, Alan Trejo, and Dom Nuñez getting two hits apiece.

Cron has now reached base safely in 19 straight contests dating back to last September, the fourth-longest active streak in the Majors and second-longest in the National League. He also had a pair of run-scoring hits to give him 16 runs batted in this season, tops in the NL and the second-most in the Majors.

Grichuk extended his streak to eight consecutive games of reaching base safely since joining the Rox— a career high to start a season. He also has a seven-game hitting streak.

McMahon plated three runs with a two-run double in the first inning and an RBI double in the seventh.

Meanwhile, Nuñez collected two hits, scored a run, and reached base three times in three plate appearances. “I just thought I executed a plan and committed to it,” Nuñez said of his day with the bat. “I got some good pitches to hit and put some good swings on it. Sometimes they fall, sometimes they don’t. I just try to control what I can control. There’s a good day.”

Despite the setback, Colorado manager Bud Black said his team will take the loss in stride.

“We have 162 of these (games),” Black said. “There’s going to be tough losses, there are going to be huge wins. You just go to try to stay as evenly keeled as possible. You can’t get too emotional. Baseball is a game that’s played more often than any other sport.

“So these guys have played so much baseball from the time they’re young. They realize the highs and lows and the rhythm of the season and how it goes. I think we are playing pretty good baseball. We let one inning get away from us today and it cost us but the guys will bounce back on Friday.”

Colorado opens a seven-game road swing Friday with the first of three games at Detroit before matching up again with the Phillies in Philadelphia, this time, for four contests.

Antonio Senzatela (1-0, 2.16 ERA) is slated to get the starting nod on the mound for the Colorado Rockies on Friday’s game. First pitch is at 5:10 p.m. (Mountain time) against the Tigers.